Excitement, Adrenaline, and Tequila
by MissKellyAnne
Summary: Patrick/Emily. Patrick: "She fell in love with me on a treasure hunt!" Emily: "That was not love that was excitement,adrenaline, and tequila! And I was just getting course credit." This is how I think Patrick and Emily met. Basing it off Book of Secrets.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is going to be my first chapter fic :). I hope you enjoy it, and as always - reviews are appreciated!

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We were on my class's archaeology dig. To graduate, we needed to go on one dig for course credit. This year's dig was in Mexico, which didn't really excite me; I would have preferred going to Spain, or maybe Jordan. But I needed credit, so studying the Aztecs and their temples was the only way I could graduate early and unravel the clue my father had given me; the clue to the Templar Treasure.

We arrived at the hotel we were staying at to find out that our hotel had been double-booked. A university from Maryland would be joining us on our dig, and there had been a mix up at which hotel each university was staying at. Eventually everything was settled, and we made our way down the street, towards the other hotel.

The first two days were generally boring, with the exception of my roommate, Matt, getting loudly turned down by a girl from the Maryland University. We went over the rules of the site, how to catalogue, a quick overview of how to treat the objects, etc. By the third day we were able to start excavating.

The bar my friends brought me to the second night we were staying there, didn't surprise me at all – it was exactly like them to like a run-down, sketchy bar that was hidden in some alley. We were celebrating my birthday, which I had been quite content to ignore. Unfortunately, Henry had overheard my mother calling me that morning, as he walked into my room, and decided that "the boys" were going to take me out for celebratory drink.

I didn't know that night would change my life.

The lights were dim in the bar, but that wasn't the reason I stayed seated at the table we had found. I nursed a double shot of bitter-tasting rum in my hands, wondering how long it would be before I could leave. Henry, George and Matt were already showing signs of drunkenness; they had left me at the table alone. Henry was ordering a couple shots for himself, and the girls on either side of him. Matt was dancing with a lovely girl (not) to the music that was playing, which was loud enough to annoy me. George had apparently gotten lost on his way back to our table from getting us another bottle of rum. He stood at the bar, arguing with someone over some sort of sports game.

I sighed, before taking a sip of my drink. I didn't want to be there. We were finally going to start to do some excavating tomorrow, and I didn't want to be hung-over for it.

The sudden slam of a half-empty bottle of Jose Cuervo on the sticky table top startled me out of my thoughts. I looked up, and saw a blonde who was working her way up to drunk, take a seat across from me in the booth. I recognized her as one of the students from the other university on the trip. Her hair was curly and long, all the way down her back, but it was her eyes that got me. They had mischief tattooed in them – I could never turn down a troublemaker.

"So," her voice had a British lilt to it, and if it hadn't have been for her eyes already doing so, she would have drawn me in right then. "I've been sitting over there –" she pointed to the bar, where a pack of girls were surrounding George now, "and you were looking awfully lonely." She took another swig of tequila, straight from the bottle, and it brought a smile to my lips.

"Well I'm thankful you noticed," I answered her, matching her by downing the rest of my rum.

Her pretty lips parted in a troublesome smile, and I could feel my stomach stir. I was anxious to know her. "I'm Emily," she replied, leaning back and taking another drink from the bottle. Her eyes were glued to me, as she leaned back and swallowed the tequila, her blonde curls tumbling down her shoulders.

"Patrick," I breathed, my heart stopping. She offered me the bottle, which I took. I was never one for tequila, but I took a shot anyway. I passed the bottle back to her.

As the hours moved on, Emily slid closer to me in the booth, while we bantered playfully. Her hand lightly rested on my arm when she was speaking, and she leaned in close when she whispered that George and her friend Lily were leaving the bar together. I turned, and watched who I now know was Lily walk out the bar leaning all over George. I smiled, and turned back to Emily, who was now so close I could feel her breath on my lips. My eyes stared at her pink lips, watching them until she quickly sealed my own in a searing kiss.

A few moments later, we were following Lily and George's footsteps. I stood up out of the booth, allowing Emily to slide out after me. I grabbed my coat off the rusty hanger beside where we were sitting, and when I turned around, Emily caught me by surprise again. She stretched, her hands high above her head, with her shirt riding up to show a bit of her stomach. My breath hitched in my throat, again, before she relaxed and gave me a wink. I offered her my coat – she only wore her t-shirt and jeans – which she took.

We were about to walk out the door, when Emily, who was drunker than I was, stumbled. I caught her quickly, and she gave me a cheeky smile in return. I decided then that it would probably be best if I just walked her back to her hotel room, and then go back to mine. But there was something about this girl... I could just leave my name and number... and maybe a quick note –

"What are you doing?" A man's voice brought my thoughts away from Emily, to the world around me. I turned around, and saw Nick Dunn, one of the guys in my archaeology lecture. I sat beside him, and we seemed to get along pretty well. Until tonight, of course.

"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning.

Nick gestured towards Emily, who was fumbling with my coat that was far too big for her. "I've been working her over all night, until you showed up. She's mine."

I shook my head, sure that I wasn't hearing correctly. "Pardon?"

Nick stepped forward, looking very menacing to me. I had never been in a fight in my life. "I said, I'm the one that's going home with her."

Emily must have heard that, because I could hear her voice coming from behind me, "Excuse me!?" She tried to step in front of me, but my hand stopped her from getting too close to Nick.

"Nick, she's too drunk to go home with anyone."

"What the hell are you doing then Gates?"

I sighed, knowing how that must look. "I'm just going to walk her to her hotel. She can't go out there by herself – especially when she's drunk."

Nick came closer to me, and my hand pushed Emily farther behind me. "I think you want to go back to your booth, Gates. Leave the girl with me."

I stood my ground. "No. Nick, you're obviously drunk, Emily's drunk. Hell, I'm a little drunk too. Let's just leave it."

Nick raised his fist to me, but I ducked. Luckily, I was right in assuming he was drunk, because he stumbled after missing my head. I responsively punched him in the chin, immediately regretting it after I had. My hand was throbbing, and that look in Nick's eyes that had made me nervous before, was now terrifying me. He was about to throw another punch at me, when Henry and Matt leapt on him, pinning him to the ground.

"Go Patrick!" Henry laughed at Nick, who was struggling angrily.

I pushed Emily out the door, into the cool night air. I had a smile on my face when I turned to her, but the words died in my throat, when I saw her glaring at me. "I can handle myself you know."

I frowned, "Yes... I never said you couldn't?"

"I could have handled Nick."

I sighed. "You're drunk, I was just trying to look out for you."

"I'm not the kind of girl that needs protecting!" Her voice rose, and her eyes flared up. "I don't need a knight in shining armour to rescue me. I can rescue myself."

"Yes, I'm sure you at – how much do you weigh? A hundred and fifteen pounds? – could have taken Nick, whose arms probably weight fifty pounds each." I was getting angry – I just helped this girl, and now she was yelling at me for doing it?

"Not everything needs to be solved with violence!"

"Did you not see the look in his eye?" My voice was rising to match hers. "The one that said, 'violence is the way I'm going to solve this problem'? If it weren't for my friends and I, who knows what he would have done!"

"He would have done nothing, because if it had come down to it, I could have used my defence classes!"

I raised my eyebrow at her.

"God, I cannot believe I was going to have sex with you!" she threw her hands up in the air frustratedly, as she began to walk away from me, down the alley and towards the street.

I followed her. "I wasn't going to sleep with you. I was going to walk you back to the hotel, and then leave. You're too drunk to making any decisions."

Emily whirled around to face me, her finger poking me in the chest. I placed my hand on her elbow to steady her. "I am not drunk – I can hold my alcohol thank you very much!" I noticed that her accent became more apparent the angrier she got.

I raised my eyebrow again. "Yes, that's why you're stumbling over air."

She let out a frustrated growl, and turned away from me. "Stop following me!" she called, when she noticed that I had turned the corner with her.

"You're drunk, and I'm not going to let you get yourself killed, or in some other kind of trouble, just because you're too stubborn to ask for help." I replied, still following her.

I followed her to her hotel, arguing the entire way. When we got to the door I walked her up the stairs to the building, still arguing with her as the night concierge shook his head at us. I followed her right up to her hotel room, intent on making sure that she stayed in there. She got her key out, and I waited while she fumbled with the lock, leaning beside the doorframe. Suddenly, Emily pulled me by my shirt, and spun me to pin her between her and the door to the room. Her hands wrapped around my neck, bringing me in for a heated kiss, which I gladly returned. 'Sudden' seemed to have been her motto for life by the way that night was going.

Somehow she got her door open, and just as it fell open, I was brought back to the world around me again. I helped her up from falling with the door. Her hand that was still in my own, pulled me to follow her in. I shook my head, and squeezed her hand. "You're still too drunk."

Emily rolled her eyes. "You are gallant to a fault." She moved closer to me, and grabbed a pen that was inside my jacket she was still wearing. Pulling my arm towards her, she proceeded to write her phone number on the inside of my elbow. She let go, and put the pen back in my jacket pocket. Her hand was placed on my chest, as she smiled at me. "Call me tomorrow, so I can give you your jacket back."

"You could just give it back now..." I asked, not taking the hint.

"Where's the fun in that?" She gave me another kiss, before turning and shutting the door.

I smiled, and turned around. There was definitely something about that girl...


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up from my dreamless sleep to my alarm clock ringing angrily. My hand instinctively slapped the clock off, but when I drew my hand back in, I felt something else on my nightstand. I slowly opened my eyes, yawning and stretching as I did so. I delicately sat up, taking care of my pounding head. I looked over and noticed there was a bottle of Gatorade and two Advil sitting beside my alarm clock with a note saying, _Happy Birthday Champ_. I smiled weakly, taking the two pills with a long swig of Gatorade. This should help my head.

Emily came flooding back to me, as I sat in bed, drinking my Gatorade. I smiled, remembering the way she tasted, and the way her hair felt caught between my fingers. The memory of her writing her number on my arm hit me like a wall, and I quickly looked. There it was, written in blue ink. I recognized the number as the hotel's, since that was where we were supposed to stay, but I couldn't see the extension number for Emily's room. My mood dropped; there was no way the hotel was going to give me her extension.

I crawled out of bed, making my way to the common room where Henry, Matt, and George were sitting sipping coffee. I looked at them enviously. "Where did you get the coffee?"

Matt looked up with a grin on his face. "Morning sunshine. We got the coffee from downstairs – continental breakfast, remember?"

I nodded, yawning, my drink still in my hand. I sat down next to Henry, who replaced the drink with fresh coffee. "There you go Champ."

I smiled at them. "Thanks guys," I said, taking a long drink of the coffee. It was better than I expected it to be.

"So..." Matt grinned at me. "George told us all about Lily –"

"No, Lily told us all about Lily," Henry grinned. He turned from looking at Matt to me, "George brought her back here... you should have been up earlier this morning – it was awk-ward!" Henry and Matt burst out laughing.

I laughed with them, giving George a sympathetic smile.

"Anyway," Matt continued, "we heard all about Lily, now tell us about that cute blonde you went home with last night!"

I sighed, taking another drink of my coffee. "I didn't go home with her... I just walked her to her room, and then left."

Silence came over them as they stared at me. I didn't know why they were staring at me so blankly, and I was about to ask them why when George said, "You have got to be the most boring guy in Mexico right now, you know that?"

I shrugged defensively. "She was completely drunk!"

Before any of them could reply with what I knew was going to be 'you were drunk too!' I stood up. "What time did Dr. Bright want us ready for?"

George looked at his watch. "We got twenty minutes to be in the lobby."

I nodded; that was plenty of time to shower and get ready.

An hour later, we were bending over a jungle clearing, gently brushing away the dirt from more dirt. I yawned, still tired from last night. I could hear Henry chuckle behind me, so I turned to shoot him a glare. It was not my idea to go out last night. Now that I thought of it, I was glad I went, but disappointed that I didn't get more information on Emily. I didn't even know her last name. An hour passed, and all I was finding were small stones and rocks – nothing of any value. I was getting frustrated, wishing even more that I had just waited a year and gone to Jordan instead when -

"Hey stranger danger."

I looked up, and saw Emily, smiling cheekily down at me. She was wearing my jacket, with her hands tucked into her jeans pocket. I stood up, brushing the dirt off my pants. I met her eyes.

"Thank God you're still cute." She sighed, apparently relieved. I frowned at her, so she explained. "I was worried that you wouldn't be cute anymore, you know... now that I'm sober." She laughed.

I laughed with her, but awkwardly. Was that a compliment? We both fell quiet. To break the awkward silence, although it was clearly only awkward on my side of the conversation I said the first thing that came to mind. "Hey, how's your head," I joked, knowing that mine was pounding just as strong as it was that morning.

Emily shrugged. "I don't really get hangovers that often. Just one of the lucky few I guess." She paused, and grinned at me. "How's your head?" I watched her tuck a stray curl behind her ear – the rest was tied up in a low ponytail.

I straightened up my stance. "Oh, it's good." I mentally smacked myself for saying that. "So... here to give me my jacket back?"

Emily shook her head. "Nope. It looks better on me anyway."

I raised my eyebrow at her cockiness. "Well. You're welcome for the jacket and for the walk home last night."

Her jaw tightened, and I could see she was still angry. Oops. "I could have taken care of myself. You were just too intent on impressing me with your masculinity; you decided to punch out who ever that guy was."

"That guy was Nick, who just happens to be on our wrestling team," I scoffed.

Emily gave me a pitiful look. "Your wrestling team must be dreadful."

This girl was unbelievable! I helped her, and she still insists that she could have taken an almost-pro wrestler by herself, even when she's sober! I was about to give her a piece of my mind, when she spoke first.

"Well, have fun playing with dirt boys," she waved at Matt, George and Henry who were watching us. She turned her focus back to me. "I'm going to finish digging up the stone tablet I found." She gave me another cocky grin, before walking away.

Stone tablet? "Wait, what did you say?" I rushed after her, following her over to edge of our workspace, where no one was really working.

Emily raised her eyebrow at me. "I found a stone tablet. Judging by the language, it was probably one of the Aztec's religious texts." She stopped, and pointed to a small spot she had cleared from dirt. Part of a stone was showing, with markings on it that looked a lot like the language from my textbook.

"It could be poetry," I replied, squatting down to get a closer look. I grabbed one of her brushes and began to brush away more of the dirt. "The Aztecs loved poetry, it was the only suitable job for warriors –"

"During times of peace," she finished, snatching her brush from me. "I'm majoring in Pre-Columbian native history. I know about the Aztecs." I watched her begin to brush away the dirt, just as I was doing. "Don't you have somewhere else to work?" I could hear the irritation in her voice.

"You should brush more gently, that way-" the look in her eye when she glared at me terrified me even more than Nick did.

"Go. Away." She told me, her teeth visibly clenched.

I stood up, and backed away. "Fine, have it your way. I was just trying to help."

"Well stop."

"Okay. Let me know when you've brushed away the markings on the pottery."

"Shut up."

I turned and walked away from her, going back to my own station.

---

At lunchtime, my curiosity about the stone tablet Emily had found had reached a breaking point. Every so often my eyes would wander from the dime-sized pieces of broken pottery I was finding, over to where Emily was working, expertly hiding her work from everyone else – which was another thing that had grabbed my curiosity. Why was she hiding her work? I wondered if it was for the same reason I would.

Lunch was served; slightly soggy sandwiches and warm soda. Henry, Matt and George, being the great friends that they are, refused to let me sit with them while we ate.

"If you don't go over there, and talk to her, you're gonna be sleeping in the hallway tonight," George grinned. I hesitated. "Seriously, get over there."

"Do you know how annoying she is? How frustrated she makes me?" I protested.

"Patty's in love!" Henry laughed, pushing me over towards where the Maryland university students were sitting. "Go talk to her!"

After a couple more minutes of protesting, I ended up walking over to Emily. She was sitting away from the group – thankfully – her blue eyes glued to her station. I sat down beside her on the sand. "Any luck with the stone?"

She turned to face me. "Yes... it's not out fully yet, but I believe it's a poem."

I gave her my best smug grin. "I think that makes me right and you wrong."

Her eyes narrowed. "I never said it was definitely religious. I said that it might be religious."

I shook my head. "No. That makes me right and you wrong." She opened her mouth to say something back to me, but I interrupted her. "So wait, how do you know that it's poetry?"

She looked at me like she thought I was an idiot. "I... translated them?"

I felt my cheeks growing warm. "Oh... ya."

She sighed, and raised her eyebrow at me. "You didn't think I could translate them by myself, did you?"

"No, I just... wasn't expecting it." I picked at my sandwich.

"What that I could translate them by myself?"

My head shot up to meet her eyes. "No! I just wasn't... okay, I didn't expect you to be able to translate them yourself... but not for the reasons your thinking!" I watched her roll her eyes at me. "It's just... you're really young... and not many people my age have a grasp on that language, including me."

Emily laughed. "Nice save. I know it because it's what I do with my spare time. You have to be passionate about your work, and I'm passionate enough to do it not only as a career or school work, but also because I love it."

"I feel the same way." I smiled at her.

There was a pause between us, but this time it wasn't awkward at all.

"So, what is Patrick..." she let out a chuckle. "I don't even know your last name."

"Gates." I replied.

She smiled. "Emily Appleton. Nice to meet you Patrick Gates." We shook hands, both laughing.

"So what is Patrick Gates passionate about?" she asked, taking a bite of her sandwich.

"The Templar Treasure," I grinned.

"Do tell," she invited me to tell her my story.

I took a deep breath, and I told her all about my family's history, the clue my father was hunting down, trying to follow, how certain I was that I could find it; I told her everything. I knew I was going on about it, even coming off as a bit over-zealous, but she was patient. She was actually listening – probably because it was the first time I had told her about it.

"Sounds interesting... so you plan on getting your archaeology degree, and then go off hunting down this clue?"

"That's the plan." I replied. "How about you?"

"Research," she replied. "I've always loved being out in the field, doing research, unlocking languages... even if it's only to myself. I don't want to let these dead languages stay dead. They were widely spoken at some point. Someone should remember them."

Our eyes locked, when she finished, and I could feel myself smiling at her. It wasn't until Henry called over to me for me to hurry up, that I realized our lunch hour was over, and that we needed to get back to our stations to finish up.


	3. Chapter 3

While we were packing out tools, and preparing to leave for the night, I could hear Emily's professors reprimand her for not telling them about the tablet before. I wondered for a moment if there was something wrong, because she wasn't saying anything back – which was nothing like I expected from her. I loaded the tools into the back of Professor Bright's rental truck, and stood by the bus to wait for her. We would be taking different buses, of course, but I was debating on asking her to dinner... and if I decided against it at the last minute, I could at least ask about the tablet.

Emily nodded, replied to the two professors, and made her way over to the buses where I intercepted her. When she noticed me walking beside her, she stopped, with a scowl on her face. "They're yelling at me for something that they would have done in my position." She crossed her arms. "If I had told them about the tablet, they would have shoved me off, and taken over. And I never would have gotten credit for it."

I looked over at the professors, who were now joined by my professors, and turned back to Emily. "Well, I doubt you'll get any credit now."

Emily shrugged, and that familiar troublesome grin appeared. "I still have this," she pulled a scrap piece of paper from her pocket.

"What is it?" I tried to grab it from her, but she dodged out of my reach.

"Why should I tell you?" she smiled.

"Because you can't go one more minute without gloating to someone that you found a tablet," I answered with a smirk on my face.

"Well, maybe I'll just tell Lily," Emily replied, before turning away from me towards her bus.

"Wait," I called. She stopped and turned. "What are you doing for dinner?"

"I promised the girls I'd have dinner with them."

"Oh..." I said. "Well I guess I'll see you –"

"Meet me at that bar we were at last night. Around eight thirty-ish?" She called, as she stepped onto the bus.

"But I don't wa-" the door on her bus closed. As Matt and George were calling me to get my butt on the bus, I finished, "-nt to drink... ugh."

--

I walked into the place, only slightly nervous about seeing Emily. She was sitting at the bar, talking to the bartender animatedly. I smiled, watching her for a moment. She was just so... different. She made me so frustrated, but at the same time, it was like I was addicted to her. I made my way over, and took a seat next to her at the bar.

"Hey," I said, giving her my best smile.

She smiled back at me, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Hey," she turned to look at the bartender again. "Can we get some nachos please? And some tequila?"

The bartender grinned at us, handing her a bottle of tequila. She took it, and the two shot glasses he passed us in his other hand. Winking at him, she nodded her head over to an empty booth. I let her lead me over, but I couldn't help wondering how one woman could be so... cocky?

"So," she said, setting the bottle down on the table top. She put the two glasses down, and proceeded to pour two shots. "Tell me something I don't know about you."

"I really want to know what that tablet said."

She laughed, which made me smile. "Really?"

"So badly that I'm going crazy," I took the shot with her.

"Well, I'm not sure I want to show you yet." There was that cheeky grin again.

I watched her pour herself another shot. "You're kind of an alcoholic aren't you?" I smiled.

She shrugged, nursing her second shot. "You meet my parents, maybe spend a day in my life, and try not to take a drink... besides, it's basically my spring break, and we're in Mexico."

"What's wrong with your parents?" I leaned closer to her.

She sighed, leaning back. Her eyes glued to her drink, as she swirled it around in the glass. "My mother is overbearing, and I can never do anything right in my father's eyes." She turned back to me, leaning forward. "I mean, you would think that my being twenty and still know more about ancient languages than some professors would impress him."

"It impresses me," I told her. The smile she gave me felt like a real smile, not like the ones that she flashed me when she was being difficult, or joking around. I chose this as my favourite smile of hers.

"Thanks, Patrick."

The bartender appeared at our table, and placed the plate of nachos between us. Instantly, I could feel Emily's demeanour change, and I saw her flash him a smile as he left. She reached over and popped a chip in her mouth. "So, Mr. Gates. What about your parents?"

I smiled gently, staring into my empty shot glass. "Well, my mother died a few years ago, and my father is waiting... impatiently for me to graduate and help him work on finding the Templar Treasure."

"You know," Emily paused, but continued. "I was telling Lily about you, and someone overheard me. Apparently the Gates family is quite famous for trying to find this treasure."

I shrugged. "Well, a lot of people in history were laughed at while they tried to make improvements."

"And what's your improvement for the world - to become rich?"

I frowned. "Do you know how much history is in that treasure? All the times it changed hands, it grew, and as it grew, it took a piece of the previous owner with it. It has Roman treasure, Egyptian treasure, colonial treasure... imagine how much history will be recovered when we find it."

Emily smiled at me again, and my stomach flipped. I thought that I could spend days making her smile at me like that. "That's very noble of you Patrick."

There was a moment of silence, when her eyes were looking at the tequila in her shot glass. I took a nacho, and took a bite. "I really do want to see that paper." I gave her a goofy grin.

She laughed, "Fine, fine." She took out the piece of paper she had shoved into my jacket pocket. I guess it was her jacket now though... "I still don't understand it fully. I just translated it." She passed it to me.

I looked at the piece of paper, reading the poem. It didn't make sense to me at first, because it wasn't structured in a way I was familiar with. I remembered that this was an ancient culture, and an ancient language. I couldn't use English as model... We sat in silence for a few minutes, while I read the translation. I looked up suddenly, to see Emily pour her third shot.

"These are directions," I said, excitedly.

Emily leaned forward, with an eager look in her eye. "Really? To where?"

"I'm not sure. But I think the beginning of it is how we get to our dig site."

"What do you mean?" She scooted closer to me; she now sat beside me, and I was never more aware I had a forearm, until that moment when our arms touched.

I swallowed, and blinked, trying to remember why I thought it led to somewhere near our dig. "... because if you at the first line, '_the protective eagle_'? On our way to the site, there's a massive rock that we pass – it's shaped like an eagle. And this line, see here – '_drop of death surrounded by life_'? I think that means our actual dig site."

"Because our site isn't man made... it's a natural clearing surrounded by jungle." Emily grinned, looked up.

I noticed again, that she was so very close to me. I was about to wrap my hand around her neck, and pull her closer, to kiss her, but a roar from the bar broke through to us. I was going to ignore it, but Emily sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Boys and their sports," she said, pulling away from me. She flashed me a smile, downed her third shot, and shook her arms after putting the glass down. "I'm feeling tingly," she laughed, as she put the cap back on the bottle. "I'm gonna go give this back, and then you can walk me home."

She left the booth before I could reply, so I finished up the nachos. I wondered briefly if I was going to get lucky tonight, because I wasn't sure if drunken Emily was as... ambitious as sober Emily. She was so hard to read sometimes. I looked over at her, and saw that Nick was making his second appearance. I didn't want to go start a fight, but I couldn't leave Emily with that particular semi-pro wrestler all by herself.

I stood up and made my way over to the bar, where Nick was now talking to Emily. I was close enough to hear Emily say, "Please stop talking to me," before I leaned on the bar, on the opposite side of Emily.

"You ready to go?" I asked, trying not to make eye contact with Nick.

Emily turned to look at me, and nodded. "Yea, let's go." She hopped off the bar stool, while Nick gave me the deadliest stare I had ever received.

"Hey babe, I can walk you home." Nick said, his eyes glaring into mine.

Emily didn't even look up, as she pulled up her jeans. "You're still talking." There was a bite in her voice.

I couldn't help but chuckle, as she grabbed my arm, and pulled me out the door. We were on the street, and a few feet away from the alley before Emily said something, "And you said I couldn't take care of myself."

I rolled my eyes, replying, "Oh yea, you definitely showed him."

"Were you dropped on your head as a child? Or are you just a chauvinist because it's a free country?" She shot at me, walking a little farther away from me.

"Do you always take everything so seriously?" I replied, keeping up with her. Someone had to make sure this firecracker got home alive.

"Excuse me? I most definitely do not take everything seriously – you're the one –"

"I'm the one who can't say anything without you blowing up at me!"

She stopped and turned at me, huffing. "You are so... so... so..."

"...truthful?" I offered with a cocky grin.

"You are thoroughly horrible." She replied, turning away from me.

I still followed her to the hotel, albeit quietly. I entered the hotel behind her; she glared at me as she held the door open for me. I took it from her and ushered her in, and as she grumbled under her breath something about being able to open a door herself. I smiled, hoping that she actually did like my holding the door for her and she was just being stubborn...

I walked her to her door, and as soon as she opened it, I turned to leave.

"Patrick?"

I turned around, expecting her to yell at me, or to say something about being able to walk herself home, but instead I saw her look at her feet, almost unsure of herself. Damn it, this girl was complicated.

She looked up at me with a gentle smile on her face – my favourite smile. "Thanks for walking me home. I'll see you tomorrow?"

I couldn't help but smile. "Yea... Goodnight Emily."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Soooo... this chapter goes a little fast, so sorry about that. It's more about Patrick and Emily's relationship than the actual treasure hunt... but anyway. I'm dedicating this chapter to Jestana because... we'll you'll know why ;)

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The next morning I went straight over to Emily; she was with the rest of our two classes, encircling our professors and paying close attention to the instructions – the same ones we were given yesterday – that they were giving us. I tapped her elbow, to let her know I was there. She turned to me and grinned, a couple curls of her blonde hair framing her face. We both turned back and listened to our professors repeat their instructions.

When they finally let us go, I followed Emily to her designated spot where she was digging yesterday. She stopped and gave me a puzzled look. "... can I help you with something?" she gave a small laugh.

I was confused. "Um... aren't we going to follow those directions you translated? See where they lead us to?"

Emily's eyebrows rose. "You're kidding right?" There was a pause, and she realized that I was not kidding. "Those directions could lead to a trap, or lead us around in circles. Or," she stepped closer to me, "they could get us lost. I am not going into that jungle," she pointed to the direction I was planning on going, "with just some ancient directions, that are not completely reliable."

This statement threw me for a loop at first. I figured that Emily would be completely onboard with this idea, but apparently I still didn't know her as well as I thought I did. I should just give up on trying figuring her out; I doubt I'll ever understand her. Except... maybe one last trick... "Well, if you're too chicken to go with me, I guess I'll go by myself." I gave her a smug grin, as I walked past her to enter the jungle.

"Oh no," she said, jumping in front of me to block my way. "You are not going without me. I was the one who found the stone, and I was the one who translated it."

I smirked. "So you're coming with me."

Her eyes narrowed. "Fine." She walked past me, on her way back to the site. Her backpack, a large, beige, rather plain looking one, was sitting where we had been standing a few moments ago. After rummaging through it for a few moments, she returned, showing me a round compass in her hand. "Now we can go."

I gestured my hand out towards the direction I thought we should go, to let her go first. She eyed me for a moment, I wasn't sure if she was going to yell at me again, but she turned and walked away instead. I followed her, and we walked in silence for a couple minutes, before she turned on her heel. I almost walked right into her; I had to grab a stray branch to steady myself.

"Do you know where we're going?"

"Well, give me the directions, and I can tell you; but I'm pretty sure they told us to go south...."

She shook her head slowly. "I don't have them. You have them."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Um... no, you have them."

She shifted her weight onto one leg, and placed her hand on her hip. "No. I gave them to you last night at the bar."

"And you took them off the table, and put them in _my_ jacket pocket." I pointed to the offending jacket.

"No I didn't, I..." she trailed off, because as she began to search the pockets, I could see her pulling the paper with the directions on it out of one of them. I gave her a grin, to which she replied, "Oh shut up." She tossed the directions at me, and tapped her foot, impatiently waiting for me to decide what to do next.

"Well... if I'm reading these right," Emily shot me a glare, and I corrected myself. "... and I _know_ I am... yea, we should be going south until we see the eagle and the snake."

Emily eyed me for a moment, before she turned around and kept walking, her compass in hand. I followed her for a moment, before I felt my foot give way. I looked down, and noticed that I was standing in a pretty shallow hole. I looked up at Emily's back; she hadn't noticed. Wouldn't it be funny if...

"Emily!!" I yelled. She turned around, and I pointed to my legs that were hidden by the hole. "I'm in quicksand!"

Her eyes widened. "Hold on, let me find a branch!"

I could hear her talking to herself, trying to keep herself calm, but it really wasn't working. I watched her pull on a branch, and as it broke free of the dead tree it was attached to, I quickly dropped to my knees in the hole. "Quickly!" I yelled to her, as she ran over.

When she reached me, she was about to pass me the branch, but she looked down and saw the hole. I doubled over in laughter, stepping out of it, apologizing through my laughter. "I'm so... sorry Em... I couldn't help..."

"You idiot!" she yelled, as she began to beat me with the branch. "That was not funny!" She continued to hit me with the branch, and the next day I knew I would have bruises, but I finally calmed her down. "Don't you ever do that again! Next time you want my help, I am just going to sit back and watch you _help yourself_." She gave me a glare, and tossed the branch to the side. I couldn't help give out another chuckle; she glared at me, but we both knew that if I was in trouble, she'd help.

We continued in silence, which let me look at our surroundings for a moment. Everything was green, all different shades of it. Vines hung off trees as if they were thoughtlessly dropped from the sky, and there was a distant hum I could hear that had to have been some sort of insect. There were plants everywhere; crunching beneath our feet. I smiled; I felt so adventurous, like we were in a movie. This was the perfect spring break... suddenly, I wasn't so unhappy that I chose to come here instead of Jordan.

We were walking for only a few minutes, until Emily tripped over a stone. She fell forward, and I tried to reach out and catch her, but I was too slow - she fell into patch of plants. "Are you okay Emily?" I reached over and helped her up.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." She replied, pulling a vine out of her hair, and dusting her clothes off.

I turned to look at the stone, and saw that it was unnaturally round. I knelt down beside it, brushing off the dirt with my hand gently. It looked like it was a knob. "Emily, come here," I beckoned her to come closer to me. She knelt down in front of me, on the other side of the... knob.

"What is it?" I asked, brushing away more dirt.

Emily brushed away the sand and dirt away around it, and it looked to be another stone tablet. We began to push away the vines, and pull away at the plants that had grown over it, as well as the sand and dirt. When we sat back from it, there was more writing... around a picture of an eagle clutching, and eating, a snake.

"The gods," Emily breathed, looking up at me excitedly. "This is the symbol the Aztecs used to represent the presence of the gods!"

"So... this is a temple?"

"It could be any number of things. This symbol was also used to protect things."

I nodded, stood up, and looked around for something that this symbol could be protecting. The only things I could see were more trees, plants, and vines. "What could it be protecting?" Emily didn't answer me – and she always has something to say – so I looked down to see what she was doing.

Mumbling to herself, she was running her hand along the writing. When she finished, she looked up at me. "Well, this writing is just to ward off invaders and protect whatever it's supposed to protect."

We looked around in silence for a moment. I was stumped; I didn't know where to go from there. I put my hand in my pocket, and that's when I remembered the directions. I took them out, and read them to see if they'd be of any use to us. It became very clear from there. I knelt back down to the knob. I read the directions, one more time, before turning the knob fully to the right, then twice around to the left. I grinned, as the whole tablet popped up slightly. Emily grinned at me as well, as she reached over and pulled the tablet over, giving us a view of a flight of stairs.

Before I could stop her, Emily let out a scream of delight, and bolted down the stairs. I followed her quickly, calling out to stop her. "Emily!"

She turned around, giving me an impatient look. "What?!"

"We don't know where this will lead us. There might be traps and –"

She crossed her arms, and shifted her hip out. "So now _you're_ going to be the cautious one? No one's been down here for centuries – I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Well, I think you should stay here, and I'll go on. That way if something happens to me, you can go back and find the others." I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.

Her eyes narrowed, and her hands dropped to her side. Suddenly, she was inches away from me. "You are NOT going to _go on without me_. I was the one who found the stone, I was the one who translated it, I was the one who found the –"

As she ranted, I couldn't help but get lost in her eyes. As much as I wanted to yell back at her, to tell her it was too dangerous and I never should have let her come with me into the jungle in the first place, never mind the underground tomb, temple, whatever it was we were in– I couldn't. Her cheeks were flushed; her blonde curls shook as she nodded her head in anger. Her eyes were enflamed; I couldn't help myself. I had held back long enough – how I had managed this long without jumping her I had no idea at that moment.

I pinned her against the dusty, stone wall. I looked into her eyes, to make sure she was feeling the same thing I was feeling. Her eyebrow cocked upwards, almost daring me to make the first move. I leaned down and captured her lips with my own in a fierce kiss. Her hands were reaching down my shirt, pulling me closer to her, as I pulled her back from the wall long enough to let her shrug off her own shirt. I pressed her up again. So close... but should we be doing this here? I pulled back, breathing hard. She looked even more beautiful than when she was yelling at me; out of breath and breathing hard. I cursed my sensible side for stopping.

"Should... should we be doing this here?" I breathed.

"As opposed to where else?"

"A hotel room?" I answered, letting out a scoff as if she didn't know that would be the sensible thing to do.

Her eyebrow raised – she did that far too much – and cocked her head to the side. "You would rather have sex in a bedroom... than in an underground Aztec building that nobody's been in since they were alive?"

I paused, respect for what could be a temple briefly coming to my mind, but before I could answer, Emily had ducked out of my arms, and away from the wall. Picking up her shirt that had been carelessly thrown to the side, she shook her head.

"Well, if you have to think about it, then you're clearly not the man I thought you-"

Her words turned to giggles, as I pinned her up against the wall again, my mouth finding her neck. From the corner of my eye, I saw her shirt falling to the floor again, as she wrapped her arms around my neck pulling me closer.

---

I heard Emily giggle, as I buttoned up my shirt. Our eyes met; she bit her lip and winked at me. I blushed a little, and turned back to my buttons. I frowned – there were three at the bottom that were gone... what? I looked up at Emily who shrugged.

"I couldn't undo the buttons fast enough." She replied, picking her hair tie. I shook my head at her, tucking the shirt into my pants to keep the missing buttons a secret.

I watched her tie back her hair, walking along the stone wall, looking at all the writing. A smile came to my face; this girl was simply... amazing. I don't know how long I watched her in silence, but she turned around suddenly, with a smile. "Shall we move on?"

"That's a good idea." I replied, heading down the hall.


End file.
